Tuesday 30 August 2011

Jessica Simpson Delves Into Diamonds

She?s the queen of celebrity merchandising, and Jessica Simpson's latest line of product falls into the fine jewelry category.

The ?Dukes of Hazzard? hottie has become the first celebrity license for Firestar Diamonds, and her Diamonds Are a Girl?s Best Friend collection will be available in Zales stores this fall.

Zales honcho Theo Killion told press, ?Jessica Simpson is viewed as the girl next door, and our guest is a midmarket guest and we believe she is someone that they can identify with. She has great reach and great power across a number of different categories, so doing a diamond fashion collection made perfect sense.?

Jessica shared, ?Jewelry is such personal expression of style and taste. This collection has allowed me to create pieces that truly reflect who I am, and that can become a keepsake for lifetime. The collection is beautifully crafted. The designs are airy and artistic and so easy to wear.?

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/jessica-simpson/jessica-simpson-delves-diamonds-538037

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Pammie tipped for non-celeb Big Brother spot

Filed under:

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Pamela Anderson, who was hotly tipped for the current series of Celebrity Big Brother, is now rumoured to be heading into the house for the non-celeb version.

According to the Sunday Mirror, the 44-year-old former Baywatch babe is due to join the ordinary desperate wannabes folk when the celeb version ends next week.
A source told the paper: "Pamela is a big box office draw. It's a great signing. She'll be very good for ratings - provocative and opinionated."

Granted, it's a good signing (if it's true).

But we're confused - the celebrity version is, let's say, short on actual celebrities, and now a star bigger than any of those currently in the house is rumoured to be joining the civilians.

It's a topsy turvy world.

What do you think - will Pammie really join the regular Big Brother contestants? Leave a comment below...

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If Pamela enters the Big Brother house, you can bet your life there will be plenty of flesh-flashing...

 

 

Source: http://celebrity.aol.co.uk/2011/08/28/pamela-anderson-big-brother/

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Pammie tipped for non-celeb Big Brother spot

Filed under:

PA

Pamela Anderson, who was hotly tipped for the current series of Celebrity Big Brother, is now rumoured to be heading into the house for the non-celeb version.

According to the Sunday Mirror, the 44-year-old former Baywatch babe is due to join the ordinary desperate wannabes folk when the celeb version ends next week.
A source told the paper: "Pamela is a big box office draw. It's a great signing. She'll be very good for ratings - provocative and opinionated."

Granted, it's a good signing (if it's true).

But we're confused - the celebrity version is, let's say, short on actual celebrities, and now a star bigger than any of those currently in the house is rumoured to be joining the civilians.

It's a topsy turvy world.

What do you think - will Pammie really join the regular Big Brother contestants? Leave a comment below...

Sign up to our weekly newsletter
| Follow us on Twitter | Become a fan on Facebook

If Pamela enters the Big Brother house, you can bet your life there will be plenty of flesh-flashing...

 

 

Source: http://celebrity.aol.co.uk/2011/08/28/pamela-anderson-big-brother/

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Monday 29 August 2011

Britney Spears Reveals Next Single At VMAs

Singer confirms to MTV News that 'Criminal' is next up from Femme Fatale.
By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by James Montgomery


Britney Spears at the 2011 VMAs
Photo: MTV News

Britney Spears may have been looking back on her impressive career during a Jo Calderone-helmed tribute at Sunday night's VMAs, but there's still so much for fans to look forward to. The singer has a lot up her sleeve after taking home the Moonman for Best Pop Video for her "Till the World Ends" clip and the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award -- and she revealed all to MTV News.

There's been some hot debate about what the singer's next Femme Fatale single is going to be, and finally her loyal fans are getting the confirmation they've been waiting for.

"I don't if I'm at liberty to tell," she teased MTV News backstage at the VMAs. "But I will anyways: It's 'Criminal.' "

The slow jam should make for some interesting visual fodder, and Spears told us she knows what the video will look like, but she's going to keep everyone waiting a little longer. "Actually the song, when I first heard it, it's really different and it's not anything I've heard like this before. So I really wanted to deliver this song. I was thinking of a really cool concept for the video just to make it interesting," she said, teasing, "You'll have to see."

She's also set to hit the road again when the Femme Fatale Tour heads to Europe. She'll be joined by Joe Jonas for select dates.

The 28th annual MTV Video Music Awards have wrapped, but the real action is just getting started! Stick with MTV News for winners, fashion pics, video and behind-the-scenes stories about everything that went down. Visit VMA.MTV.com for the latest.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MTVNewsLatest/~3/i4C0hAhXi8Y/britney-spears-next-single-criminal.jhtml

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Aaliyah: still rocking the boat

Ten years on from her tragic death, tributes pour in for this remarkable R&B star whose music sounds just as fresh today

It's 10 years to the day since we lost Aaliyah. The singer was killed in a plane crash in the Bahamas aged 22, on her way home from filming the music video for her single Rock the Boat. Her death seemed all the more tragic for the fact that Aaliyah was pushing a minimalist and futuristic sound that far surpassed anything she ? or her peers ? had done before.

Her third, eponymous album came out a month before she died, but if it was released today it would still sound startlingly fresh. Producer Timbaland hasn't come close to creating anything as sonically stunning since, although it's likely his success on this record was responsible for the commercial peaks he reached with Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado. From We Need a Resolution's odd, skittish argument with a bad boyfriend to the gentle soul of I Care 4 U, it's pop music in a different league, as playful as it is inventive.

As friends and fans tweet tributes today, linking to videos of tracks that meant the most to them, it's remarkable not only that few chose the same song, but also how different and complex each track is. The music was rarely smooth ? famously, Timbaland makes use of a baby's cry for the percussive drive of Are U That Somebody?. Such starkness has had a lasting and far-reaching effect on music ? not just shaping the direction of singers such as Cassie and Ciara but also reaching out to everyone from Dirty Projectors to the xx to Gossip.

Even 10 years after her death, the feeling that, were she still alive, Aaliyah would still be releasing remarkable music, has not yet subsided, and maybe it never will.


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/aug/25/aaliyah-tribute

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Elijah Wood Lists Santa Monica House



SELLER: Elijah Wood
LOCATION: Santa Monica, CA
PRICE: $1,850,000
SIZE: 2,130 square feet, 2-3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (plus separate guest house)

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: The last couple weeks Your Mama has been on an informal and haphazard attempt to clean out some of the celebrity real estate cobwebs on our trusty laptop computer. Today we continue in that vein with a brief discussion of a modest if not exactly inexpensive Santa Monica, CA residence owned by actor Elijah Wood who recently listed the property?as a tear down, dontcha know?with price tag of $1,850,000.

The former child actor (The Adventures of Huck Finn, North, Flipper) hit the Tinseltown jackpot in the late 1990s when he was cast in the enormously popular and lucrative Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Since that sci-fi franchise came to a close in 2003-4, the now 30-year old Mister Wood expanded his move role repertoire with a bevy of small but interesting films that include Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Green Street and Everything is Illuminated. The massive music aficionado also founded and runs his own indie record label Simian Records.

Property records show the 2,130 square foot Spanish-style casa?teeny-tiny by today's celebrity real estate standards?was built in 1924 and acquired by a then 18-year old Mister Wood in August 1999 for $1,450,000. Based on previous reports and other online information, the charming but unassuming main house was occupied primarily by Mister Wood's momma and poppa while young Mister Wood set up house the detached guest quarters.

Listing information indicates the two-story main house contains 2-3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms while the guest cottage, detached from the main house but attached to the two-car garage, includes an additional bedroom and bathroom plus a small office area.

A boxwood lined walkway leads to the rotunda entry hall laid with what listing information calls "British brewery cast iron tiles." We're not really sure what those are but presumably they're interesting enough to be mentioned in the listing. The entry gives way to the "formal" living room with its spectacular barrel-vaulted ceiling, over-sized picture window, and wood-burning fireplace flanked by tall paned side-lights. Rich hardwood floors in the living room extend into the "formal" dining room as well as into a main floor bedroom/den that features a second fireplace and French doors that connect to a trellis-covered terraced at the rear of the house. Two second floor bedrooms, both with hardwood floors and tree top views share a single bathroom.

The small-ish kitchen could use a renovation to make it glisten with modernity but currently features vintage cabinetry with glass-fronted uppers, intricately patterned multi-colored tile back splash, butcher block counter tops and high-grade appliances that include a six-burner Wolf brand range. A wide archway connects the kitchen to a small breakfast room with built in buffet/china storage cabinet.

A sizable dining/lounging/entertainment terrace extend off the rear of the house and steps down to a raggedy patch of grass and concrete terrace half-encircled by a low stone wall/bench and curving trellis. The two car garage at the back of the property is accessed by an alley way.

Our brief and entirely unscientific research indicates that Mister Wood has not lived in this house for a number of years. In October 2004 Mister Wood spent $1,200,000 for a modest 1,408 square foot residence in downtown Venice, CA that property records show has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

listing photos: Keller Williams / Santa Monica

Source: http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2011/08/elijah-wood-lists-santa-monica-house.html

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Will the Bank Boot Burt Reynolds From his Florida Estate?


Once upon a time mustachioed actor/beloved geriatric sex symbol Burt Reynolds was the Hollywood shit. Women swooned over his thickly haired chest and cavalier masculinity while men practiced smacking wads of gum and making stupid wisecracks in an effort to adopt that special brand of Burt Reynoldsian good ol' boy man-sexy.

He popped into the Tinseltown scene way back in the late 1950 but Mister Reynolds' professional salad days were without a doubt the 1970s and 80s when he appeared in dozens of films that include Smokey and the Bandit (I, II and III), The Cannonball Run (I and II), Stroker Ace, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas with top-heavy country queen Dolly Parton. In the late eighties and well in to the 1990s he switched from the silver screen to the tee-vee screen with starring rolls on B.L. Stryker, Out of This World, and Evening Shade. In 1997 his all but moribund movie career was revived when he portrayed porn director Jack Horner in Boogie Nights, a role that earned him an Oscar nomination. Since then he's appeared in scads of movies and television programs, most of which we've never heard of let alone seen.

The last couple of years have not been particularly kind professionally, personally or financially for the one-time superstar. In 2009 he reportedly checked himself into rehab to cope with an addiction to pain killers and in 2010 he underwent a quintuple bypass surgery. Now, here we area in the dogs days of summer 2011 and word slips and slides down the celebrity real estate gossip grapevine that Mister Reynolds is more than a million dollars behind on the mortgage for Valhalla, his waterfront estate in hoity-toity Hobe Sound, FL

It seems almost inconceivable that a man with such a long and presumably lucrative career in the Show Business would find himself in the sort of financial pickle that would keep him from making his mortgage. However, according to earlier reports, a lawsuit filed last week in Martin County (FL) Mister Reynolds stopped paying his mortgage about a year ago and owes Merrill Lynch Credit Corporation (MLCC) around $1,200,000 in unmade payments. Should Mister Reynolds not make good on what he owes, MLCC could move to foreclose on the luxuriously appointed but decoratively kitch property, a maneuver that would put Mister Reynolds out on his 70-something year old keister.

Mister Reynolds has owned the property since 1980 when records show he paid $700,000 for the three-plus acre water front spread that includes a 12,538 square foot main mansion with 5 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms. Interior spaces include a cavernous living room, formal dining room that opens to a screened in party-porch, office with antique wood-paneling and waterfalls?yes, water falls?extensively equipped fitness facility, wine cellar, saloon-like billiard/game room, and a huge home theater with wide screen, portable popcorn maker and small organ.

The secluded and deliciously private property also includes an additional 2 bedroom guest house, caretaker's cottage, heated swimming pool with adjacent gazebo, floating helipad, and private dock plenty large enough to park a big boat (and a helicopter).

Mister Reynolds attempted to sell the estate in 2005 when it was listed with an optimistic asking price of $15,000,000 that was later raised to $15,900,000. Within a year of the price increase the price tag had plummeted to $12,900,000. Eventually the price was dropped again to $10,500,000 and then again to $8,995,000. A few flicks of the well-worn beads of Your Mama's bejeweled abacus shows the last asking price?or at least the last asking price we're aware of?represents a punishing 44% reduction from the highest number put on the property.

As of this morning, Mister Reynold's Hobe Sound residence remains on the market with an asking price of $8,995,000.

listing photos: JIC Realty

Source: http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2011/08/will-bank-book-burt-reynolds-from-his.html

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Tyler, The Creator Falls 'Into Kanye's Arms' After VMA Win

'Yonkers' MC talks post-Best New Artist victory to MTV News with Odd Future's Jasper Dolphin playing interpreter.
By Kelley L. Carter, with reporting by Rob Markman


Tyler, the Creator backstage at the 2011 VMAs
Photo: Jason Merritt/ Getty Images

Not long after learning he had won the Moonman for Best New Artist at Sunday's Video Music Awards, Odd Future's Tyler, the Creator seemed to have blown up too big to even do his own talking. Instead of delivering a straight-on post-victory interview with MTV News, he whispered answers about the win into his groupmate's ear.

After a question about whether he was at all disappointed to earn Best New Artist and not Video of the Year (it went to Katy Perry's "Firework"), OF's Jasper Dolphin responded, "I just wanted one, I'm fine.

"I like cheese," Jasper added, as Tyler, the Creator whispered the responses into his ear.

While accepting his Best New Artist award, the rapper told the crowd he was on the verge of tears. So, we asked him if it had been hard to hold them back. "It was really hard, but [the tears] came out when I fell offstage into Kanye's arms," he said, speaking again through Jasper Dolphin.

After nabbing the Best New Artist statue from presenters Taylor Lautner and Selena Gomez earlier Sunday night, Tyler delivered a mostly bleeped-out speech. "Yo, I'm excited as f--- right now, yo," he said. "I wanted this sh-- since I was 9. I'm about to cry. This is for my little brother Earl. He's not here right now. I really can't believe I'm here right now. I didn't write a thank you speech. I don't know. F---. To all the kids watching, you can do this sh--. Thank you."

The 20-year-old bested fellow Best New Artist nominees Big Sean ("My Last," featuring Chris Brown), Foster the People ("Pumped Up Kicks"), Kreayshawn ("Gucci Gucci") and Wiz Khalifa ("Black and Yellow").

The 28th annual MTV Video Music Awards have wrapped, but the real action is just getting started! Stick with MTV News for winners, fashion pics, video and behind-the-scenes stories about everything that went down. Visit VMA.MTV.com for the latest.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MTVNewsLatest/~3/5XSTcIVbGNE/tyler-the-creator-best-new-artist-vma.jhtml

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A Temporary Nest in 'The Birds' for Lovebirds Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux


Rom-com queen and former sit-com star Jennifer Aniston (Friends, Horrible Bosses, Marley & Me) may have only snatched brooding screenwriter/actor Justin Theroux (I Shot Andy Warhol, American Psycho, Tropic Thunder, John Adams) from a 14-year relationship a few short months ago but their high-profile and much chronicled romance zoomed from 0-60 faster than it takes water to boil.

Almost immediately after hooking up the very quickly smitten kittens were spotted looking for a house to buy in some of the better zip codes in Los Angeles. Your Mama?dontcha know??has specific knowledge of two high-priced pads the pair peeped. Not finding the perfect property to buy, the now constant companions reportedly opted to lease a (temporary) love nest in a celebrity-chocked neighborhood high above the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, CA known as 'The Birds.' The 'hood, home to Hollywood types like Leo DiCaprio, Keanu Reeves, Megan Mullally, and Jodie Foster, is often referred to as 'The Birds' due to all the streets being named after?you got it?birds.

A well-informed tattletale we'll call Ben Theredonethat pointed Your Mama's limited attentions to the couple's new crib, a very modestly-sized if still quite pricey pad last on the market with a rental price tag of $20,000 per month. Property records show the well-located but discreet digs were purchased by the current owners, a screenwriter husband and a location scout wife from a prominent New York family, in January 2007 for $3,050,000.

Listing information Your Mama managed to squeeze out of the interweb shows the high-hedged, electronically-gated, and recently-renovated ranch-style residence measures 1,761 square feet and includes just 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms plus a 2-car garage converted into a den/office with pitched ceiling and an entire wall lined with built-in book and display shelves.

The main living/dining room has a high vaulted ceiling with exposed beams, peg-and-groove wood floors of various widths, a wood-burning fireplace flanked by built-in book cases, and a trio of French doors that open the long room the to small limestone terrace that surrounds the wee plunge pool and attached spa.

The random-width wood floors continue into the adjacent eat-in kitchen that has a faint but detectable vibe of a French bistro and includes dark taupe cabinets topped by grey-veined white marble counter tops, white subway tile back splashes, high-grade stainless steel appliances and open shelves on either side of the window over the sink where the daily dishes are on display.

The guest bedroom offers a pitched ceiling, brick fireplace, walls covered in what looks like burlap or some sort of linen, and simple but adequate bathing and terliting facility with glass-enclosed shower stall and wood floors. The master bedroom, considerably larger than the second bedroom but still quite cozy features a peaked ceiling with exposed beams and an attached bathroom with double sinks and marble-lined tub/shower. Two sets of French doors open the bedroom to the pool deck and bathmat-sized patch of grass that gives way to a lounging terrace protected for privacy by a thick and tall hedge.

In addition to the plunge pool, spa and surrounding sunbathing terrace with canyon view, the small backyard includes a number of other patios and decks for lounging, dining and entertaining.

Interestingly, but not surprisingly given the rather unusual real estate ways of the rich and famous, the leased house sits just a half mile from another modest house at the top of the Bird Streets that Miz Aniston has owned since January 1993 when she shelled out $751,000 for the 2 bedroom and 3 bathroom ranch-style residence. One would be a fool not to wonder why Miz Aniston and Mister Theroux didn't just move into that house but such are the inexplicable ways of the rich and famous.

In late June (2011) Miz Aniston sold Ohana, her approximately 10,000 square foot newly renovated mansion in Beverly Hills, for $35,000,000. All research and signs point to the buyer of Ohana as Bill Gross, a freakishly wealthy Orange County (CA) mutual fund manager.

Prior to that, in April 2011, Miz Aniston dropped a titanic total of $7,019,000 for two itty-bitty apartments, one on top of the other, in an imposing, desirable and very expensive pre-war building in New York City's hyper-gentrified West Village. Miz Aniston paid $2,069,000 for the lower unit, a 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom with 3 closets, a tiny kitchen and wood-burning fireplace in the step down living room. The apartment was last priced at $1,800,000, which means Miz Aniston wanted it so badly she paid $209,000 over the asking price. The upstairs unit, a petit penthouse owned by sensationally successful hair cutter Sally Hershberger, cost Miz Aniston a whopping $4,950,000. While no larger than the downstairs unit, the puny penthouse has almost as much space outdoors from the wide terrace that wraps around three sides of the apartment and offers thrilling city views to the south, west and north to the Empire State Building and?even better?the Chrysler Building.

Presumably, as per previous reports, Miz Aniston intends to combine the two tiny units into one still quite cozily scaled duplex penthouse that will encompass fewer than 2,000 square feet of interior space.

The astronomical sale, purchase and rental prices of Miz Aniston's recent real estate activities boggle Your Mama's boozy brain into a state of torpid bewilderment. However, puppies, we can still find and muster the a very real appreciation of Miz Aniston's new-found self-recognition that bigger and fancier is not necessarily better when it comes to real estate even if one's bank account balloons impressively with a sizable showbiz fortune like hers, usually estimated to be well in excess of $100,000,000.

listing photos: Coldwell Banker / Hancock Park North via LA Life

Source: http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2011/08/temporary-nest-in-birds-for-lovebirds.html

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Alec Baldwin Goes Downtown


BUYER: Alex Baldwin
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $12,500,000 (list)
SIZE: 4,137 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: What's old quickly becomes new again in the world of celebrity real estate. Two weeks ago the peeps at The Post reported that Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning actor Alec Baldwin listed his long-time home at the high-toned and twin-towered Eldorado building on New York City's Central Park West with an asking price of $9,500,000.

What was not mentioned was that Mister Baldwin attempted to sell the 3 bedroom and 3.5 bathroom spread on the 22nd floor at The Eldorado way back in August 2009 with a much lower asking price of $7,500,000. It doesn't take clicks and flicks of the hard-working beads on Your Mama's bejeweled abacus to determine that Mister Baldwin and his Real Estate have seen fit to jack up the price by a full two million dollars even though, arguably, the real estate economy isn't all that much better today than it was two years ago.

Anyhoo, at the very same time Mister Baldwin listed his 22nd floor co-operative apartment at The Eldorado he also listed a second 1-bedroom unit with 12-foot ceilings on the ground floor of the building with an asking price of $1,200,000. This unit no longer appears on the open market nor is is mentioned in current listing information for Mister Baldwin's bigger unit upstairs. Make of that what you will.

Mister Baldwin has been on on the house for new digs in The Big Apple for quite some time. Originally his search centered around Upper West Side where he reportedly peeped at numerous fancy pads including places at the troubled Apthorp building and a 4 bedroom spread at The Dakota priced at $12,500,000.

Ultimately 50-something year old Mister Baldwin turned his real estate attentions downtown where his plan, as per all the New York City property gossips, is to buy a new crib where he can bunk in the lap of luxury with his much younger 28-year old lady-friend, yoga instructor Hilaria Thomas.

Within days of The Post reporting on Mister Baldwin's (re-)listing of his Upper West Side aerie, a real estate snitch whispered to the fine folks at Curbed that Mister Baldwin has signed contracts to purchase a duplex penthouse at the newly renovated Devonshire House in Greenwich Village's hoity-toity Gold Coast 'hood. The hulking red-brick pre-war edifice was originally designed by noted and beloved architect Emery Roth who, coincidentally, also designed the geometric Art Deco magnificence that is The Eldorado.

Mister Baldwin (allegedly and reportedly) opted for a 4,137 square foot penthouse pad at Devonshire House that last carried an asking price of $12,500,000. Listing information shows the posh penthouse?with interiors done up and did over by big-time decorator Victoria Hagan?contains 3 sizable bedrooms, each with private (and windowed) pooper. The large master suite, tucked into a oblique corner of the building with eastern and northern views, features an entry vestibule with coat closet?which we love?a windowed bathroom with separate glass-enclosed shower and raised soaking tub, private sitting area/study, and a dressing hall lined with closets.

The main living space pinwheels around a floating staircase and includes a formal dining room, living room with fireplace, and eat-in kitchen with center island breakfast bar plus room for a table, white Shaker-style cabinets, crisp white counter tops and grey-veined marble back splash, deep farm house sink and commercial-style stainless steel appliances.

The floor plan, as marked up in marketing materials, shows a somewhat awkward relationship between the foyer, living room, kitchen and dining room. As marked, one has to go through the kitchen or dining room in order to get to the living room. Iffin this were Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter's $12,500,000 penthouse we'd probably make the dining room the living room and the living room the dining room in an effort to promote a more harmonious relationship between the public spaces.

The second floor contains a family room/den with built-in wet bar, windowed bathroom and access to two terraces, a smaller one that overlooks the building's courtyard and a larger one that hangs over tree-lined East 10th Street.

listing photos and floor plan: Stribling

Source: http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2011/08/alex-baldwin-goes-downtown.html

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Behind the music: Why topline melody writing creates disputes between artists and songwriters

The legal row between Leona Lewis and DJ Avicii has been settled, but it highlights the rough deal songwriters can get when ownership of a track is unclear

Last week week the DJ Avicii v Leona Lewis saga came to a happy ending, as they settled a legal dispute in which the 22-year-old Swedish DJ had attempted to get a high court injunction to block the release of Lewis's new single, Collide, alleging that the instrumental track for the single was copied from Avicii's forthcoming single, Fade Into Darkness.

So how did Lewis end up recording an almost identical track to Avicii's without realising their releases were going to, er, collide? It'sbecause of the common practice ? especially among DJ/producers and dance labels such as Avicii's label Ministry of Sound ? of sending out a track to a multitude of topline writers, asking them to come up with melody and lyrics (the topline) for the track. The writers then have to record said topline, so the DJ can have his pick of the bunch and select the one he/she likes best. In this case, one of the topline demos containing Avicii's backing track that was not picked found its way to Lewis, who recorded it, prompting the dispute.

This practice is not something favoured by most topline writers I know. If you're one of eight people writing to the same track chances are your melody will sound similar to the others, and so ? if your topline isn't picked ? it's likely that your work will have been for nothing, as you won't be able to use the topline for anything else (though, with any luck, you may be able to use the lyric). On top of the time you've spent, you may also have had to pay to record the vocal. You may also have had to hire a singer ? which can cost hundreds of pounds, unless you managed to convince them to do it for free, if there's a chance of them performing the track (most don't like working on spec, though).

There is a way, however, to prevent misunderstandings. If a songwriter doesn't want their co-writer using any of the song for another track they can commit their "intent to make a song", which prevents any of the parties ripping the song apart. Award-winning songwriter and record producer Bill Padley says he sends out a legal disclaimer making clear that if his melody isn't used after doing a topline, it reverts to him, and the track back to the track writer. "If they don't agree, I don't do it," he says.

That's not the only way songwriters can lose control of their song. It's common for artists to demand songwriting credits on a track ? jokingly called "change a word, get a third" by songwriters ? sometimes without having anything to do with the writing. An artist once demanded 70% of a song I had worked on, if she decided to record it. As the song was a three-way co-write, that would've left the three of us who actually had written it with 10% each. If an artist gets a co-writing credit like this, and then leaves the track off the album, they can prevent it being recorded by anyone else, as composers have the right to decide who will release the first recording of a song (they don't, however, have a right to deny anyone from covering it after the first release).

This right could also have been used by Avicii to stop the release of Collide. All he had to do was prove he wrote the track ? something no one seemed to dispute. According to Digital Spy, Radio 1 DJs Pete Tong and Annie Mac had been playing the instrumental of what's now called Fade Into Darkness (back then it was called Penguin). When Avicii accused the Leona Lewis camp of stealing it, Collide's producer, Sandy Vee (whose previous work includes David Guetta's Where Them Girls At, Rihanna's Only Girl), addressed the issue on Twitter: "Talk only if you know what u r talking about ? if not shut up. FYI, check the credits, u will find Tim Berg, Autumn and I." Tim Berg is Tim Bergling ? who is DJ Avicii.

Autumn is Autumn Rowe, who is credited as the topline writer on Collide. In an interview with Digital Spy, she talked about writing Collide. "She [Leona] wasn't involved in [writing] it, but what happened was, I was working with her and we were just about to go to Sweden," said Rowe. "I had three days in New York and I was going to go see her and I wrote the song then." Does that mean Rowe wrote it before she even heard DJ Avicii's track?

Meanwhile, Leona tweeted: "With regards to my song, avicii was aware & agreeing publishing splits for himself and his manager."

Avicii responded: "Thanks for accusing me of lying and speaking on my behalf. Since we never met or even spoke, please let me and my manager know who told you that and what confirmation they gave you." He insisted no permission had been given to use his track, and that he never even heard Collide before it went to radiio.

There's an irony in that dance music is notorious for borrowing from and using other tracks. It raises the questions: what makes an instrumental track unique? And what is more important ? the track or the topline? You can't copyright a chord progression, but a distinct hook line is a different matter (think the Abba hook used in Madonna's Hung Up). Even if someone replays a hook instead of sampling it they still have to ask permission and credit the person who came up with it ? as well as negotiating how big a piece of the publishing should go to the hook line writer.

And maybe that's where things went wrong between Avicii and the other writers of Collide. Maybe he didn't like the splits. Or, maybe, Ministry of Sound was piling on the pressure ? after all Avicii would get paid for both tracks, but MoS could lose out on sales as Collide may take some thunder away from their track. He has expressed his dismay that his label will get no reward for a track he recorded for MoS.

In the end, though, the whole ordeal has ended up promoting both artists and their new singles. There's one thing that puzzles me, though. Leona Lewis tweeted: "When Avicii sent his track out to have a song written over it I totally fell in love with this version and I think he's super talented." If the track was sent out as a track to be recorded for his album, how come Lewis heard it? And how come she decided to use it for her own album?


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/aug/26/topline-melody-disputes-artists-songwriters

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Tyler, The Creator Nabs Best New Artist VMA

'I'm about to cry,' Odd Future MC says during profanity-laden acceptance speech.
By Amy Wilkinson


Tyler, the Creator at the 2011 VMAs
Photo: FilmMagic

MTV Video Music Awards voters went bonkers for "Yonkers," or more specifically, its creator, Tyler, the Creator, awarding the young MC with the night's Best New Artist Moonman.

After a jubilant hug from his mother, Tyler rushed the stage to nab his statue from presenters Taylor Lautner and Selena Gomez. Joined by his group, Odd Future, the MC offered an excited, yet expletive-laden acceptance speech.

"Yo, I'm excited as f--- right now, yo," he said. "I wanted this sh-- since I was nine. I'm about to cry. This is for my little brother Earl [Sweatshirt]. He's not here right now. I really can't believe I'm here right now. I didn't write a thank you speech. I don't know. F---. To all the kids watching, you can do this sh--. Thank you."

Tyler directed the black-and-white video -- from his second solo album, Goblin -- using the name Wolf Haley.

The 20-year-old beat out fellow Best New Artist nominees Big Sean ("My Last," featuring Chris Brown), Foster the People ("Pumped Up Kicks"), Kreayshawn ("Gucci Gucci") and Wiz Khalifa ("Black and Yellow").

Tyler was also nominated for Video of the Year (it went to Katy Perry's "Firework"), and he caused a stir during the VMA Pre-Show when he took a stab at fellow nominee Bruno Mars. When asked about the possibility of the "Grenade" singer besting him for the honor, Tyler said, "I might kill myself."

The 28th annual MTV Video Music Awards have wrapped, but the real action is just getting started! Stick with MTV News for winners, fashion pics, video and behind-the-scenes stories about everything that went down. Visit VMA.MTV.com for the latest.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MTVNewsLatest/~3/OlXcq47P5eQ/tyler-the-creator-vma-best-new-artist.jhtml

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Chris Brown Levitates, Dances To Nirvana At VMAs

R&B star grooves to Wu-Tang Clan's 'Protect Ya Kneck,' Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and his own hits.
By Kelley L. Carter


Chris Brown performs at the 2011 VMAs
Photo: Kevin Mazur/ WireImage

Bright, sparkly lights designed in an arc pierced the stage and shone down on R&B singer Chris Brown as he hit the stage at Sunday's Video Music Awards.

Dressed in a white formal suit, the performer slow-shuffled down to the dance stage, and once he landed in the middle of the dance floor, he was flanked by full-skirted dancers. He gyrated and danced and sang his hit "Yeah 3X," while Kanye West jumped to his feet and clapped his approval.

On the psychedelic set, Brown high-stepped his way through the track, and eventually was joined onstage by tuxedo-clad dancers. He then moved into the 1993 Wu-Tang Clan classic "Protect Ya Neck," moving to the '90s backbeats in traditional hip-hop dance breaks.

His routine then moved to 1991, making the unexpected to choice to dance to Nirvana's "Teen Spirit," and one of Brown's dancers jumped on a trampoline to the rock classic.

Brown then came back to the future when he began singing his latest hit, "Beautiful People." Things really reached new heights as Brown was elevated high above the crowd, connected to invisible wires, as the crowd cheered as he landed on another stage.

Once he landed, he did a running-man routine, with him and his dancers moving in place and high-stepping their way through the hit. Later, other dancers were elevated and positioned behind him to join in on the routine.

Brown then went back in the air, back-flipped and yoga-posed midair in a "Matrix"-like performance. Every time he went up in the air, he did splits and back-flips.

While his "Look at Me Now" video was nominated, he hit the stage without collaborators Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes.

The 28th annual MTV Video Music Awards are live now! Stick with MTV News for winners, photos, video and behind-the-scenes stories about everything going down. Visit VMA.MTV.com for the latest.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MTVNewsLatest/~3/TS406pMmnIY/chris-brown-vma-performance.jhtml

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Tareque Masud obituary letter

James Leahy writes: Ronald Bergan's insightful obituary of my friend Tareque Masud (17 August) describes the great financial risk taken by Tareque and Catherine, his wife and producer, when they invested their own resources in the production of The Clay Bird. Only by working outside the institutional norms of Bangladeshi feature film finance and production was it possible for Tareque to realise his vision.

His use of direct sound (or "live sound", as he called it) was more or less without precedent in subcontinental feature film-making. Consequently, the only appropriate sound equipment available when shooting The Clay Bird was what he and Catherine purchased for the production themselves. Obviously, this was an extra demand on their limited finances. However, the result was an evocative soundtrack that made an important contibution to the immediacy and impact of both the dramatic and musical sequences.

Tareque's next feature, Homeland, shown in 2006 as part of the Voices of Bengal exhibition at the British Museum, was shot in digital video. He insisted it be released in cinemas as well as shown on television. It was a popular success in both cases, and on DVD as well. Once again, there are moments of great poetic impact in his use of sound, whilst his choice to set the film in the Sylhet area meant that he was working with the speech of that area, effectively a different language from that in his previous films.

Although Tareque was genuinely a pioneer, his work had deep roots in both the film art of the past (Jean Renoir, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu, Robert Bresson) and in Bengali culture, not only the "high culture" of Rabindranath Tagore or Satyajit Ray, but, as he told me, the "rural, folk and un-modern parts", which he described as "egalitarian, inclusive and syncretic".


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/aug/28/tareque-masud-obituary-letter

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My Chemical Romance bring the theatrics to Reading festival 2011

It got off to a damp start, but the enthusiasm of Pulled Apart By Horses and Metronomy got the crowd in the mood for MCR's sensational but silly headline slot

Don't tell them up in Leeds, but this year's Reading Festival gets off to a less than spectacular start. The gates remain closed until the last minute, the site is reduced to a soggy swamp of mud and punters are forced to huddle together in their makeshift rain macs ? many crafted cunningly out of bin bags. At this rate the fireworks promised by OTT headliners My Chemical Romance will be about as dynamic as a damp fart.

Thankfully, the early bands have enough enthusiasm to combat this initial apathy. Leeds noiseniks Pulled Apart By Horses make it clear they're ecstatic to be playing the NME/Radio 1 stage and cheekily invite themselves back next year; hopefully to play further up the bill. A product of their city's thriving rock scene, they blast out High Five, Swan Dive, Nose Dive and crossover hit I Punched a Lion In The Throat to an eager crowd. There's even some crowdsurfing, despite signs from "The Man" stating that it's banned (a warning that's treated with equal disdain by Horrors fans later on).

Sunderland indie lads Frankie and the Heartstrings follow PABH with their Orange Juice jangles and cheeky double-entendres. "Are you feeling horny?" they ask, before bringing out their very own brass section. Over on the main stage there's no such subtlety from the Blackout who want to "see some erections". They prove once again that Valley Boys have more options open to them than joining the local choir with some throat ripping pop-hardcore.

The younger bands clearly have their adrenal glands pumping and several bigger names could do with rediscovering some of that ballsiness. While the Offspring say that they're thrilled to be here (again), their static performance tells a different story. The Deftones, try matching their legendary 2000 performance with tracks from their first two albums, Adrenaline and Around the Fur, but it takes a cover of Katy Perry's Firework to really get the younger crowd excited.

Following a proper Reading Rock Day start, ambient alt-dubsteppers Mount Kimbie provide something completely different in the dance tent, where a packed crowd are decked out in day-glo face paint. With clever electronics from Crooks & Lovers and the recent Carbonated EP sounding muscular live, they're one of the few acts that work as well playing to punters in a pool of mud as they do causing a rave up in Plastic People. Addressing a similar crowd, electro-indie oddballs Metronomy have swapped The English Rivera for the Costa Del Sludge. But as the sun pokes through the clouds at last, their set feels like the sound of a band finally starting to live up to their early promise. A big up to drummer Anna Prior is also in order ? somewhat depressingly she's one of the only women on stage today (Anna Calvi and one of Islet can take a bow, too).

So moving on to one of today's big draws, who isn't a lady but wears latex leggings anyway ? 30 Seconds To Mars, or The Thing Jared Leto Is Famous For That Isn't My So Called Life, are almost drowned out by shrill screams as Leto rises from the middle of the stage. This is less a gig, more an exercise in massaging his ego ? the band's set also includes a sermon and Leto's own personal mini stage. All this despite the fact that, as one disgruntled festivalgoer says, "the music sounds like something I knocked out on my casio at 4am". Mystifying.

Less confusing is the excitement building up for My Chemical Romance or MCR or My Chem's set. The band have undoubtedly come a long way since being bottled here in 2006 (seriously upsetting lead singer Gerad Way in the process) and are now part of The Big League, boasting a whopping four studio albums. Way, currently resembling an excitable manga character with his red hair and leather romper suit, seems to enjoy being bathed in adoration rather than bottles of wee (funny that, isn't it?). It could be that their ADD emo pop packs plenty of tunes ? or it could be the smoke, fireworks, balloons and hi tech video show ? but tonight they look like a band who belong on top of the bill. At least they do until the end, when they veer from sensational to just plain silly, inviting Brian May onstage for a cover of We Will Rock You followed by the weighty MCR classic Welcome To The Black Parade.

It's a suitably theatric climax, perhaps, but in some ways disappointing that a band have resorted to pulling in "star" names. Because if Reading's opening day proves anything, it's that the younger bands ? not the established names ? know how to really rock you.


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/aug/27/my-chemical-romance-reading-festival

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Sunday 28 August 2011

Darren Day: 'I ballooned to 15 stone'

PA

One-time man about town Darren Day has confessed that he put on a whopping three stone after jacking in the single life and getting married.

And the 43-year-old actor, who famously dated (and cheated on) a string of celeb women, said the weight gain came because he "felt more content" married to wife Stephanie Dooley and having children.
Dazza who was known for many years in the media as "serial love rat Darren Day", was treated for cocaine and sex addiction back in hsi single days - but appears to have traded those habits for pies and chips since moving to Yorkshire.

He said: "My problem was that I settled down and the more contented I got, the more I ate.

"After I met Steph and we had our beautiful daughter, Maddy, I felt so happy that I just settled into a quiet family life - and ate.

"I took some time out to enjoy being with my baby daughter, but I'm not used to not working, so I found myself eating more."

"I enjoy food and my wife is a good cook, so I didn't need much encouragement to eat. At my biggest, I weighed 15 stone which was more than three stone over my normal weight."

Believe it or not the pictures above were taken just one year apart in 2005 and 2006.

But then, as is often the way with celebs, he swapped his overeating for an addiction to dieting and exercise - and lost the extra weight in just three months.

He's not bringing out a fitness DVD (yet) though, but has been discussing his weight loss because he's been hired as an "ambassador" for slimming company All About Weight.

What do you reckon? Did he look better thin or chubby? Comment below...

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Source: http://celebrity.aol.co.uk/2011/08/27/darren-day-weight/

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Kim Kardashian to Wed At Ellen Degeneres' Former Estate

UPDATE (Next day): Turns out Extra?and, by extension, Your Mama?got it wrong. The correct and updated information on the Kim Kardashian wedding is located here.

While Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter couldn't care less there are oodles of children and other folks in a high state of anxiety and anticipation over the upcoming nuptials of behemoth booty-ed reality tee-vee superstar Kim Kardashian and professional ball dribbler Kris Humphries.

There are two just things we know about this impending matrimonial ceremony/Kardashian family public relation �ber-event, both of which we gleaned by unwanted osmosis via all the gossip glossies, celebrity blogs and boob-toob entertainment "news" programs. The first is that Kimmy K. and her entourage of sisters and bridesmaids will be expensively clad in custom made gowns by wedding dress designer extraordinaire Vera Wang who, in what may or may not be a coinky-dink, just dropped $9,200,000 for a glassy house in Beverly Hills.

The second bit of intel we've passively soaked up comes courtesy of the celebrity scuttlebutt slingers at Extra who reported on the telly tonight that the wagon hitching ceremony cum tabloid spectacle will take place this coming Saturday at an historic and well-known estate with celebrity connections nestled into the ocean view hills of the uppity seaside enclave of Montecito, CA,

The lavish but low-key estate belongs to high profile Silicon Valley royal Eric Schmidt, otherwise known as the former CEO of Google. When the multi-billionaire stepped down from his post atop the corporate pyramid at Google in early 2011 he received a $100,000,000 parting gift. Before his exit from Google was announced he and they engineered a plan to sell a fractional block of his overall stock that at current rates would put more than three hundred million clammers in his already over-stuffed wallet.

Mister Schmidt acquired the property in November 2007 when he paid comedienne/chat show host Ellen Degeneres and her Sapphic wife Portia de Rossi $20,000,000 for the four-ish acre estate. Celebrity real estate watchers will recall that notoriously fickle property maven Ellen Degeneres picked up the impressive spread in October 2006 for around $15,750,000 and by March of the following year had flipped her picture-perfect compound back on the market with a hugely increased asking price of $24,000,000.

The privately situated and heavily secured luxury compound's architectural heart and soul is a 5,000-plus square foot main house with 4 bedrooms and 4 full and 2 half bathrooms designed by beloved Santa Barbara architect George Washington Smith. Staff and/or guests can be comfortably accommodated in a detached 1-bedroom guest house with kitchen and an additional studio space tucked into a quiet corner provides private respite from family members and all the full-time staff people required to maintain an estate of this magnitude.

At the time Mister Schmidt snatched up the property, the extensively and meticulously landscaped grounds included a long winding drive, massive motor court, championship grade tennis court, extra-long swimming pool with raised spa area, wide terraces, broad lawns, and a stunning all�e with colorful tiled fountain that screams out for a highly stylized celebrity wedding designed?we presume?by an efficient, innovative and extremely well-paid event planner.

The children should note the photos here reflect the house as it appeared when Miz and Missus Degeneres acquired the property in 2006.

listing photos: Sotheby's International Realty

Source: http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2011/08/kim-kardashian-to-wed-at-ellen.html

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Catch me if you can: The Comic Strip reunited

Tony Blair's on the run, accused of murder. He has also bedded Mrs Thatcher. It can only mean one thing, finds Vicky Frost ? the Comic Strip crew are back

"I'm getting too old for this nonsense," sighs Robbie Coltrane, as he adjusts his stick-on moustache, straightens his lapels and draws himself up for the camera, clearly not meaning a single word of it. The sound of Rik Mayall exuberantly working on a scene drifts down the corridor towards us, and Coltrane grins, clearly revelling in collaborating with his old cohorts.

Coltrane is taking part in The Hunt for Tony Blair, a new Comic Strip Presents film, in which he performs alongside Jennifer Saunders, Nigel Planer and Mayall. "It's a bit like a family reunion," he says. "We've known each other for 29 years. Can that really be right? How can that be right? It seems like yesterday that we started this."

Viewers might feel the same way. Five Go Mad in Dorset (which aired on Channel 4's launch night in November 1982), The Comic Strip and indeed Coltrane's TV career have all aged well ? as have the careers of its other stars. Director Peter Richardson has continued to write and direct new Comic Strip instalments with various casts and, it must be said, various degrees of success. But this is the first time for more than a decade that so many of the original team have reunited.

Coltrane recalls being cajoled into auditioning for the original show, an extreme Enid Blyton spoof, by Mayall: "You know when you're young and you meet someone who's got the same humour, you want to get married really," he says. But this time, he was attracted by the premise of the new film: a manhunt for Tony Blair, shot as a 1950s fugitive film, and due to be broadcast to coincide with the publication of the Chilcot inquiry into the invasion of Iraq.

"When I saw the script, I just thought, 'Yes please'," says Coltrane, who plays Inspector Hutton in the film, which is being shot in a dilapidated old warehouse in Plymouth. "And it's just jolly nice to be with the gang again. The money's dreadful, of course."

This doesn't seem to have put off the likes of Harry Enfield, Ronni Ancona and Inbetweener James Buckley, who are also joining the cast, along with Stephen Mangan ? who, between takes, stands in the sun on the quayside dressed in a hessian toga and a pair of slippers, oblivious to the lunchers in the cafe opposite gawping at him. "When your agent rings up and says they're doing a new Comic Strip called The Hunt for Tony Blair and they'd like you to be Tony Blair, it's a very good day," laughs Mangan, who admits to being slightly starstruck by his co-stars. "You never get over that 'I've seen them on the telly' feeling."

Mangan does not look much like Blair (not least because of his off-the-shoulder costume) and there is no intention to make him sound like Blair, either. "It's not a docudrama or an impression show. We're trying to get an essence and heighten it for comedic purposes." That comedy, of course, comes laced with politics ? and the heightening includes Blair going on the run accused of murdering his predecessor John Smith. He also ends up in bed with Margaret Thatcher, who tells him: "I won my war, you didn't."

Says Mangan: "Comedy can skewer politicians and shine a light on them in a way that two years of Newsnight and Panorama and Question Time never can." Mangan, like many others, greeted Blair's election with great expectation and excitement ? only to have his hopes dashed by the Iraq war. "If you get it right, you can nail something in a politician that no other art form can."

Coltrane, posing in sharp 1950s suit and trilby, believes the film's political edge is important: "You don't want to sound like an old fart, but people don't do satire ? they do observational stuff. 'You know what it's like when you buy a packet of crisps and all the salt is in the bottom?' And you think, 'Yeah, that's fair enough.' But that's the stuff you do in the pub with your mates. When did you last see a comedian who highlighted the irony of Tony Blair being part of the Middle East peace process, when he started the war in fucking Iraq. And nobody's talking about it. Why not? Too busy texting each other. Who's throwing bricks at the American embassy? Nobody."

Richardson is off filming in a small office adjoining a once-grand room that's now stuffed with props, lights and make-up artists. His team are working round the clock: last night, they were filming exterior shots outside a mocked-up 10 Downing Street. He says the idea for The Hunt for Tony Blair popped into his head from nowhere, almost fully formed. The show takes style pointers from The 39 Steps and Sunset Boulevard, with Blair running into a fading Gloria Swanson-like diva who, as Richardson puts it, "happens to be Maggie Thatcher", as played by (who else?) Saunders.

Meanwhile, Planer steps, with some style, into the shoes of Peter Mandelson. "Mandelson was great to play," he says with relish. "You can't help but be beguiled. You may start out with a Spitting Image idea in your head, but I came out thinking, 'I can see how he ticks' and that he had many admirable qualities." Planer thinks the 1950s B&W twist is inspired, a perfect fit for such characters. "Partly, it's that they were all self-dramatising ? Mandelson as much as any of them. The reason it works somehow is because of the melodrama they lived their lives in."

He talks with fondness about his Comic Strip colleagues, and his long-time collaborator Richardson. "I don't know if I still surprise him, but he still surprises me. He's learnt to do many things ? even be quite pleasant to people." But Planer also stresses the need to bring new performers into the Comic Strip fold and "not just have a lot of old people patting each other on the back". His reasoning is simple: "Unless we were doing something about an old people's home, we'd be stuffed, wouldn't we?"

So can we expect a new wave of Comic Strip films? Coltrane is hoping to write one and direct one, and Richardson has plans for a new Famous Five adventure, in which they go to rehab; this could see French and Saunders reunited on screen. Clearly, 30 years in comedy does not dull one's appetite: Mayall says he's hoping to rekindle his TV partnership with Adrian Edmondson. "Ade and I had a good chat and we have a plan. I'm not going to tell you any more, but it's funny."

'It's a bit like getting pissed'

Mayall, who plays a strange character called Professor Predictor, seems to be in his element, dressed in a highwaisted suit, hair slicked back and that incredible face as mobile as ever as he tries out expressions for a photographer. Even our introduction becomes a jokey performance, with Mayall offering his hand in such a way as to try to make me curtsey to him (I don't). "I don't think comedy is a young person's game," he says. "I think it's for everybody. It's one of the great unifying things ? it's a bit like getting pissed, isn't it? You can just have a fucking good laugh."

While Richardson is quite frank about the fact that some of the Comic Strip films are better than others (he hopes there are 10 "classics"), it's not as if the original actors have much to prove. But being part of such a starry cast can have its disadvantages. "You can't believe your luck," says Mangan. "But you also don't want to be the one who ruins it. And there's no getting away from it: this is called The Hunt for Tony Blair and I'm playing Tony Blair and I'm in virtually every scene."

Not that this would stop him volunteering his services again. "The Comic Strip will always be Jennifer, Dawn, Nigel, Peter, Rik and Ade," he says. "But if they're looking for new recruits, I'd be the first to put my hand up. I got this job because they were looking for someone to portray a self-satisfied, smug, supercilious, glib idiot. I was obviously the first name on the list."? The Hunt for Tony Blair will be broadcast to coincide with the publication of the Chilcot inquiry.


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/aug/28/comic-strip-reunited

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